1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a adaptor that is especially useful for coupling common plumbing components to create an overflow siphon apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of devices are known to exist for coupling pipes together ranging from standard fittings to adhesives. A fitting must provide good connectability, and, depending on the application, access to other pipe components and adequate pressure resistance. Thus, for example, a siphon or overflow box of the type commonly used for aquariums ideally would be made from pipes and fitting that are economical to make, easy to assemble, simple to disassemble for cleaning, and adequately well connected to resist any leaks resulting from the large volume of water constantly moving through these apparatus. However, most siphons or overflow boxes today are made from injection molded or assembled pieces of flat material that are relatively expensive to manufacture and are not easy to disassemble or clean.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,227 issued to Willinger et al. discloses a “overflow box-type” aquarium filter that includes an intake chamber for receiving contaminated aquarium water from the aquarium tank and a filter chamber in flow communication with the intake chamber. An impeller serves to draw water from the aquarium tank to the intake chamber through a removable intake U-tube. Upon stoppage of the impeller, the flow of water reverses and flows back into the aquarium tank. While this device may be suitable for its particular purpose, it is unnecessarily complicated and requires that the impeller stops before too much water is drawn into the filter chamber such that overflow occurs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,293 by Guoli et al. discloses a filter assembly that has a generally U-shaped siphon tube that has telescopic legs and a flow regulator that provide for flow between the filter assembly and the aquarium tank. While the U-shaped siphon tube is removable from both the filter area and tank for cleaning, the flow regulator and removable legs make this siphon relatively complex to manufacture and increase the risk that a part of the siphon will be lost or broken from disassembly and handling.
Hence, it would be useful to have a pipe fitting that enables a user to conveniently assemble a siphon from common parts, thus providing an economical and easy to use and clean apparatus.